Message from Eileen Milner, Chief Executive:

Following a competitive recruitment process, to recruit a new Director of Customer Experience, Digital and Data, I am pleased to announce that Charlotte Briscall has been appointed and will start with ESFA in September.

Charlotte, who will report to myself and will be part of the ESFA’s executive team, has a wealth of experience in customer focused digital transformation.

Charlotte studied Industrial Design at Brunel University and was responsible for the development of Interactive TV at Sky including the award-winning news channel. Charlotte led the customer navigation through the transition from Orange and T-Mobile into EE.

More recently, Charlotte designed the development of Sainsbury’s customer, colleague and supplier facing digital services. She brings with her a huge passion and commitment for delivering exceptional customer experience. I know she will make an enormous contribution to the work of the ESFA.

Charlotte will lead a large technology transformation project to ensure customers find ESFA easy to interact with, and persons who submit data to ESFA, find it easy to do so. This will make sure that the data ESFA collects, and analyses helps deliver timely and accurate funding of £58 billion we allocate each year.

David Craig has been covering the role since Béatrice Lightfoot left the organisation in April, after securing a new role with another employer. David will continue to cover the role until Charlotte joins the ESFA in September.

Charlotte Briscall, newly appointed Director of Customer Experience, Digital and Data said:

I am delighted to be joining the ESFA in such a fundamentally important area of Government work. I look forward to working with the team, our partners and stakeholders, to continue the journey towards creating a quality of customer experience that others will aspire to.

Our role is to ensure that every interaction we have with our schools, trusts, colleges and independent training providers, as well of course as with parents and other stakeholders is engaging, meaningful and straightforward by using the best approaches to service design, data science and digital technology.

On 24 April 2019 the Employment Tribunal made a protective award to former employees of Monarch Airlines Limited to recompense them for the failure to consult about the potential for the redundancies following the business being put into administration.

The Insolvency Service has received a copy of the protective award and we are processing the payments that are due to eligible former employees of the airline.

What do I need to do?

You don’t need to take any further action just now. If you’re eligible for a Protective Award payment we aim to pay this within 12 weeks. However, we may contact you before this time if we need further information.

If you’re not eligible to get a payment, we’ll write to you to let you know.

Friday 17 May is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT in English). I know that every day we seem to celebrate something internationally and we probably all get tired of the “Feliz dia de….” messages that get circulated on social media.

I think of 17 May as a day to celebrate and promote diversity. But why does diversity matter? Well, not only is equal treatment a fundamental principle for human rights, but it also has an economic impact for your business. There have been numerous studies in the UK showing that workplaces which actively promote diversity, enjoy higher levels of employee satisfaction, productivity and profitability. In short, companies with a diverse workforce, prosper better than those without one.

Why does this happen? Well, as an employer, if you want to get the best out of your employees you need to offer a workplace where everyone can contribute in full. That means a workplace where people do not have to hide a part of themselves. A environment where colleagues can work safe in the knowledge that they will be evaluated on their performance and not their background, race, gender or orientation.

Companies with a diverse workforce have also been shown to be more resilient and innovative. Why? Well, having a diverse workforce also encourages diversity of thought. Companies that thrive today are those who are willing to innovate, take risks and change. If you only recruit one “type” of person, you may not truly benefit from the widest range of opinions, ideas and creativity. Instead you end up reinforcing “group think”, with a privileged inner circle taking all the strategic decisions, but limiting themselves to a single point of view. Over the longer-term, that’s a dangerous place for any business.

I’m really conscious to not recruit “in my own image”. I want colleagues with a diverse range of ideas and experiences in the British Embassy. In practice that means ensuring all our jobs are published and truly open to competition and that interview panels are made up of colleagues with a range of views. Similarly, when we host events at the Embassy, we want to invite guests who represent all of Uruguay, in all its diversity.

As the first openly gay British Ambassador in Uruguay, when I finish my time here, I wanted to be remembered as the Ambassador who was open, professional and represented the UK to the best of his abilities. I do not want to be remembered as the “gay” Ambassador. On this special day for the LGBT community, we are not asking for special treatment, but a chance to prove that we can do the job as well as others.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office now advises against all travel to Iran by British-Iranian dual nationals. Travel advice has been changed in response to the Iranian government’s continued arbitrary detention and mistreatment of dual nationals, and Iranian citizens with links to institutions based in the UK.

British nationals, in particular dual British-Iranian nationals, face an unacceptably higher risk of arbitrary detention and mistreatment than nationals of many other countries. The security forces may be suspicious of people with British connections, including those with links to institutions based in the UK, or which receive public funds from, or have perceived links to, the British government.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

Dual nationals face an intolerable risk of mistreatment if they visit Iran. Despite the UK providing repeated opportunities to resolve this issue, the Iranian regime’s conduct has worsened. Having exhausted all other options, I must now advise all British-Iranian dual nationals against traveling to Iran. The dangers they face include arbitrary detention and lack of access to basic legal rights, as we have seen in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been separated from her family since 2016.

Regrettably, I must also offer a message of caution to Iranian nationals resident in the UK – but who return to visit family and friends – especially where the Iranian government may perceive them to have personal links to UK institutions or the British government.

The Iranian government does not recognise dual nationality and, as such, if a dual national is detained in Iran, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s capacity to provide consular support is extremely limited. In line with international norms, the UK is not able to offer consular assistance to Iranian mono-nationals.

Tennis fan Mr Mundell met with LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd to discuss plans to develop the sport in Scotland and across the UK.

The meeting followed Commons exchanges earlier this year when MPs stressed the need to capitalise on the success of the Dunblane-born stars.

The Scottish Secretary and Mr Lloyd met just hours before three-time Grand Slam champion Sir Andy received his knighthood at Buckingham Palace from Prince Charles (Thursday 16 May).

Speaking following the meeting, Mr Mundell said:

I was delighted to meet Scott and hear at first hand the work the LTA is doing to develop the sport in Scotland, alongside Tennis Scotland, and across the whole of the UK.

Andy and Jamie Murray are two of Scotland’s greatest sports stars. They are also two of the most popular – and I’m in no doubt their success must be harnessed to develop tennis. I’m pleased to see progress towards this with the introduction of a Murray Trophy tournament in Glasgow in September in honour of the family’s contribution to the sport.

If we can encourage youngsters to play the game and stay fit and healthy, that’s great. If we can find the stars of the future, even better!

LTA CEO Scott Lloyd said:

Scotland has a fantastic sporting heritage and forms a central part of the LTA’s plans to open up tennis in Britain and make it a sport for all.

We were delighted to be able to share details of this work with the Secretary of State for Scotland, including our £7.5m capital investment in new indoor facilities for Scotland and our collaboration with Jamie Murray on the Murray Trophy – Glasgow event later this year. We are very grateful for his support and look forward to keeping him updated.

During Scottish Questions on March 27, MPs hailed the “golden opportunity” of the Murrays success to promote the game and inspire a new generation of players.

Commons Speaker John Bercow – also a tennis fan – backed the calls to build on the “heroic successes” of the Murray brothers. He also praised “the extraordinary efforts of Judy Murray, one of the greatest women in the world of tennis”.

Last year, the LTA announced that Stirling University would become one of two national academies (along with Loughborough University).

In September 2018 the LTA organised the inaugural Glasgow Trophy ATP Challenger at Scotstoun Sports Campus, working in partnership with Glasgow Life, Glasgow City Council, Tennis Scotland and Event Scotland.

In developing the event for September 2019, the LTA has worked in close partnership with Jamie Murray to ensure the tournament excels in meeting the needs of both the players on court and the fans in the stands. The tournament has been renamed the ‘Murray Trophy – Glasgow’.